Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Striking Photos of Smoke

I found this contest on Gizmodo, and loved some of the pieces submitted.

I've done plenty of smoke shots with single incense sticks but tried four at once this time, and tried getting the sticks themselves in frame as well. Generally the smoke got too busy. I got the best results when blowing the smoke out of the way for a few seconds and capturing the recovering streams of smoke.-Ben Torode

My setup was an empty Bulleit bourbon bottle heavily duct taped to my kitchen counter at an angle, a shot glass suspended upside down from a string and microphone stand, black poster paper taped to my cabinets as the backdrop, individual strobes on the left and right using paper snoots, and an incense stick lined up behind the bottle.-Nick Sprankle

Once I was finished, I made a print, and since the printer prints out the photo upside-down, I saw the demon head looking at me. I'm kind of weird in the sense that I thought this was one of the coolest things ever...and still do. I still use the peaceful orientation of the photo initially just so people can experience the effect I first had when seeing the photo upside-down.-Nick Page

I used a softbox to achieve this shot. I chose pink because it's breast cancer awareness month.-Kyle Ford

I was inspired by the feminine qualities of the smoke, which led to the idea of portraying the smoke as "temptresses." The opposite of lust and temptation, a figurine of Buddha provided a warm contrast to the icy apparitions. He remains calm and introspective, paying no heed to the transient specters.-Kristina Jacinth

We set up a door in the creek to create a reflection, using a broken broom stick to prop it up. Behind the door is an external light triggered wirelessly via Pocket Wizard transmitter. There is another light on the right side of the door to light up the front face of the door from the side. Also behind the door we set off two smoke bombs.

The concept behind the image is the idea of a supernatural unknown. The smoke gives a eerie vibe while the light represents "going into the light". The door represents the unknown as no one knows what is on the other side just as no one knows what happens when we die.-Josh Trolio

Everything was sitting on my dining room table, and I had the dining room light on, otherwise I had no hope of getting the focus right. But at those settings the cloth easily stayed black. The colors are straight out of camera. After getting a couple shots with white smoke on black background, I realized it really needed something else, and added the two gels to give the image another dimension. The one I'm submitting is the very last shot I took, and I think it's the strongest.-Joe Simons

This is my first time submitting to the shooting challenge, and while fiddling around with some smoke images, my girlfriend coaxed me into making this rose because the mirrored smoke resembled one. So, here goes nothing... the only touch-up work here is the tinting, mirroring, and I blended one leaf onto the stem. Thanks for having this challenge.-Greg Auerbach

I didn't have enough light so had to use pretty much opposite settings to the ones recommended. I set up in my garage as I didn't want any wind and used an incense stick as the smoke source. I put my macro lens light directly under the chilli and another table lamp off to the right which was aimed at the smoke.-Gary Gray

This image was originally titled "Splash". I loved the way it the smoke "dripped" through my fingers, but the sideways images was most striking to me. After a day of reflecting (and obsessing) about this image, by roleplaying background decided to rear its head and I changed the title to "Mana" for the magic used in most systems.-Amber Psautti

I was ask to go take pictures at a friends birthday party. Shot at night a outside a fire lamp, with my Rebel XTI on program with an old canon flash.-Alvin Vera